COLLEGE PARK, Md. – An intervention to connect low-income uninsured and Medicaid patients to a reliable source of primary health care shows promise for reducing avoidable use of hospital emergency departments in Maryland. A University of Maryland School of Public Healthstudy evaluating the results of the intervention was published this week in the May issue of the journal Health Affairs.

For twenty years, use of hospital emergency departments has been on the rise in the United States, particularly among low-income patients who face barriers to accessing health care outside of hospitals, including not having an identifiable primary health care provider. Almost half of emergency room visits are considered “avoidable.” The Emergency Department-Primary Care Connect Initiative of the Primary Care Coalition, which ran from 2009 through 2011, linked low-income uninsured and Medicaid patients to safety-net health clinics.

“Our study found that uninsured patients with chronic health issues – such as those suffering from hypertension, diabetes, asthma, COPD, congestive heart failure, depression or anxiety – relied less on the emergency department after they were linked to a local health clinic for ongoing care,” says Dr. Karoline Mortensen, assistant professor of health services administration at the University of Maryland School of Public Health and senior researcher. “Connecting patients to primary care and expanding the availability of these safety-net clinics could reduce emergency department visits and provide better continuity of care for vulnerable populations.”

Funded by a grant from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the initiative engaged all five of the hospitals operating in Montgomery County, Maryland at the time, and four safety-net clinics serving low-income patients. Using “patient navigators,” individuals trained to help patients find the care they need and can afford, these hospitals referred more than 10,000 low-income, uninsured and Medicaid patients who visited emergency departments to four local primary care clinics, with the goal of encouraging them to establish an ongoing relationship with the clinic and reduce their reliance on costly emergency department care.

Two hospitals in Montgomery County who participated in the intervention continued the program after the initial grant period concluded because of the benefits they saw for patients and for reducing emergency department visits and associated costs. These hospitals are currently testing a new version of the intervention specifically deigned to link emergency department patients with behavioral health conditions to appropriate community-based services.

While hospital administrators and health policy experts throughout the country are recognizing that access to primary care improves continuity of care for patients and reduces avoidable use of emergency departments, the implications of this project are particularly important for hospitals in Maryland, which are now operating under a unique all-payer model for hospital payments. Within this new payment structure, Maryland hospitals will have to meet ambitious spending, quality of care, and population health goals. Reducing avoidable use of emergency departments can help in reaching these goals.

The project provides promise not only for hospitals in Maryland but throughout the nation to improve health care experiences and outcomes for their patients. Shared learning systems were an integral component of the project so participants were learning from each other and sharing best practices throughout the project and that learning has now been documented and can be replicated in other communities.

“This was an incredibly rewarding project to work on,” says Barbara H. Eldridge, Manager of Quality Improvement at the Primary Care Coalition. “We created a learning system that permits us to sustain improved communication between patients and their providers, between hospital discharge planners and community based clinics, and across five hospitals operating in Montgomery County.” The initiative has proven successful in Montgomery County, Maryland and is being replicated in communities in other parts of the country.

“Linking Uninsured Patients Treated In The Emergency Department To Primary Care Shows Some Promise In Maryland” was written by Theresa Y. Kim, Karoline Mortensen, and Barbara Eldridge and published in the journal Health Affairs.

College Park, Md. – Today, the University of Maryland launched a brand-new multimedia news and information portal, UMD Right Now, which provides members of the media and the public with real-time information on the university and its extended community.

UMD Right Now replaces Newsdesk, which previously served as the university’s news hub and central resource for members of the media. The new site is aimed at reaching broader audiences and allows visitors to keep up with the latest Maryland news and events, view photos and videos and connect with the university across all of its social media platforms.

“We designed UMD Right Now to be a comprehensive, vibrant site where visitors can find new and exciting things happening at Maryland,” said Linda Martin, executive director, Web and New Media Strategies. “Through social media, video, photos and news information, we hope to engage visitors and compel the community to explore all that Maryland has to offer.”

The new website, umdrightnow.umd.edu, contains up-to-date news releases and announcements, facts and figures about the university, a searchable database of faculty and staff experts, information highlighting innovation and entrepreneurship at UMD, additional resources for news media and other campus and athletics news.

“UMD RightNow is the place to go to find out all the things happening on and around campus on any given day,” said Crystal Brown, chief communications officer. “This website brings real-time news, events and information right to your fingertips.”

For more information and contact information for the Office of University Communications, please visit umdrightnow.umd.edu.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — A recent study conducted by the University of Maryland School of Public Health found milk outperformed top commercial products in aiding post-exercise recovery.

Jae Kun Shim, a professor of kinesiology at UMD, conducted a year-long study to test how well Fifth Quarter Fresh, a locally-manufactured chocolate milk sports drink, aided the post-exercise recovery of muscular endurance compared to other popular sports drinks. The study found the milk outperformed competing products by 13-17 percent.

The idea for Fifth Quarter Fresh came from dairy veterinarian Richard Doak and Kurt Williams, both parents of athletes in Western Maryland. The pair wondered why kids were getting injured more often, and realized the problem lay with their nutrition. After conducting research, they found the freshest milk from the best cows provided more of what athletes’ bodies needed than artificial commercial drinks, including:

Protein—20 grams, as much as most whey drinks, along with a special kind of protein that remains available for hours after drinking it;

Electrolytes—far more than products on the shelf; and

Calcium and vitamin D for strong bones.

Next, Doak and Williams brought the product to the University of Maryland for further testing.

“I was very surprised at the results,” said Shim. “I knew they had a high-quality milk with less damaged protein [than whey protein drinks] and more electrolytes, but I didn’t expect it would make much difference for strength endurance recovery. There are many studies out there that show the cardiovascular recovery benefits from milk-based products, but this data is unique because we are showing that the muscular endurance recovery from this chocolate milk is significant. Our data suggests that athletes may be ready faster and better for the next game or practice if they drink Fifth Quarter Fresh chocolate milk.”

One secret to making higher quality milk, Doak and Williams discovered, is in the cows—Jerseys and Guernseys—whose milk innately has higher amounts of protein, electrolytes, calcium and carbohydrates than the milk we typically buy in stores. Store milk is produced primarily by Holsteins, which comprise 90 percent of the herds in the U.S. simply because they produce more milk per cow.

“Jerseys naturally produce the highest quality milk for human consumption,” said Erick Metzger, general manager of National All-Jersey Inc., an industry group. “Compared to average milk, a glass of Jersey milk has greater nutritional value. Nutrient-dense Jersey milk tastes better because there are more non-fat solids, protein and calcium in Jersey milk when compared with other breeds.”

Great taste and better performance as a sports recovery drink—all achieved by using higher quality, fresh milk, Doak and Williams contend.

“When you look at the nutritional profile of Fifth Quarter Fresh over conventional chocolate milk, you get 40 percent more protein, calcium and electrolytes,” said Doak, who works full-time as a dairy veterinarian. “We hand-selected our cow breeds to provide these nutrients through the superior components in their milk.”

The other secret was pasteurization, the process of heating milk to kill the bacteria that makes it go sour. The higher the pasteurization temperature, the longer it lasts in stores.

But the commonly used ultra-high temperature pasteurization, in excess of 200 degrees Fahrenheit, also damages something called casein protein. In its natural state, casein forms a gel in the stomach and takes longer to break down, providing a longer-term protein to the body, according to Doak and Williams. Fifth Quarter Fresh is pasteurized at 165 degrees Fahrenheit, five degrees over the FDA-recommended minimum of 160 degrees, preserving the casein protein.

“Most processors cook milk to death,” Williams explained. “Our protein is natural and is better utilized by the body. An athlete will get 95 percent of our protein rather than the 70 percent they get from some of the chemical slurries on the market.”

But athletes’ bodies need calcium to come with that protein, according to Doak.

“Whenever your body metabolizes excessive protein, it leads to an acidification of the blood stream,” he explained. “The body then balances this by pulling calcium from bones. So if you are drinking in lots of protein without that calcium, you will, over time, experience a decrease in bone density.”

The University of Maryland study involved non-athletes, who conducted measured leg extension workouts, drank one of the four drinks in the study, waited for four hours and then conducted the same workout. Two weeks later they came back and did the same thing with another product.

“We were interested in their recovery before and after fatiguing exercise,” said Shim. “The recovery of strength was similar across all of the different products; however, the recovery of muscular endurance was as much as 17 percent better in the Fifth Quarter Fresh Group when compared with the other drinks.”

Doak, Williams and their partners are now trying to get Fifth Quarter Fresh into stores and provide it in bulk to athletic programs in schools and universities.

The Merrill College SPJ chapter hosted 30 events during the 2014-2015 academic year, including events that focused on diversity, ethics and freedom of information issues. Other programs held by the chapter included a resume workshop, blood drives and a tour of the Washington Post newsroom.

Chapter president Emily Schweich said that the chapter’s plan to retain members was to develop a sense of community among members by planning more chapter social events. Each year the Merrill College chapter worked to recruit new members by hosting welcome events. In addition, the chapter raised awareness among freshmen during the university’s orientation and was active at campus-wide events.

“They have worked so hard to put together some great programs (in fact, we have been working this summer to prepare for the year ahead). I am so very, very excited for them,” said faculty sponsor Sue Kopen Katcef, UMD's Capital News Service Broadcast Bureau Director.

The Merrill College SPJ chapter has won three regional chapter of the year awards (including this past school year) and two national chapter honors.

SPJ will honor the Merrill College chapter during the Excellence in Journalism 2015 conference Sept. 19 in Orlando, Fla. Other UMD honors during the conference include:

Dean Lucy Dalglish will be honored as a “Fellow of the Society” – the highest professional honor given by the Society and is awarded for extraordinary contribution to the profession.

Alumnus Brett Hall will be honored as the outstanding graduate of the year.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – University of Maryland Fischell Department of Bioengineering-based start-up Diagnostic anSERS announced that the National Science Foundation has awarded the company a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I grant to identify drivers under the influence of illegal drugs. With the $150,000 funding, Diagnostic anSERS will develop a paper-based test strip to enable rapid roadside screening for driver drug impairment, a particularly pressing need.

At the present, no effective roadside drug intoxication test exists, but most states employ Drug Recognition Experts (DREs) to combat instances of drugged driving. DREs are law enforcement officers specifically trained to identify a variety of signs indicative of drug use, such as coordination and pupil size. Despite DREs’ expertise, sobriety exams are time-consuming. Compounding this problem is the high cost of keeping a DRE on staff, which severely limits law enforcement’s ability to keep drugged drivers off the roads.

“We have interviewed numerous law enforcement officials about their needs and this was, by far, the biggest and most urgent one,” said Sean Virgile, Fischell Department of Bioengineering (BioE) 2010 Fischell Fellow and co-founder of Diagnostic anSERS. Virgile launched the company along with BioE alumnus Dr. Eric Hoppmann, and the two were advised by BioE and UMD Institute for Systems Research Associate Professor Ian White. “Right now, officers have to either rely on highly trained, highly paid Drug Recognition Experts or let the suspect go. There is no existing cost-effective solution.”

With the societal shift toward decriminalization of marijuana, this problem is expected to grow. Even more, drugged drivers are three times more likely to be involved in a fatal accident than the average driver. That risk skyrockets to a 23-times greater likelihood of an accident when a driver has consumed a combination of alcohol and an illegal drug, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s 2015 report, “Drug and Alcohol Crash Risk.”

Recognizing the need for efficient testing for the presence of illicit drugs, Diagnostic anSERS has employed its innovative ink-jet printed P-SERS™ sensors to detect traces of drugs in saliva. This new saliva test will allow a police officer to more accurately determine if a driver is currently under the influence of an illegal drug, as opposed to existing urine and hair tests which only identify prior drug usage.

Diagnostic anSERS uses surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), a molecular fingerprinting technique that works at extremely small trace concentration levels. By applying a sample to a SERS substrate sensor and measuring the fingerprint with a handheld spectrometer, molecular identification can be carried out at the parts-per-billion level in under a minute.

The company’s P-SERS™ technology is a low-cost, on-demand and portable version of an advanced sensor technology that is typically a high-end investment and confined to a lab. Even more, P-SERS™ is the first SERS sensor that is both cost effective, at a few dollars per test, and highly sensitive, outperforming the $100 market leader by 10-100× in independent testing. Diagnostic anSERS is able to achieve this combination of low-cost and high sensitivity through a patent-pending technique in which roll-to-roll inkjet printing is used to precisely deposit special nanoparticle ink onto paper and other flexible support materials.

“We are extremely pleased to receive this SBIR award from the National Science Foundation,” said Dr. Wei Yu, BioE alumnus and inventor of the P-SERS™ sensors, which enable trace detection of a wide variety of chemicals including narcotics, pesticides, and explosives. “It is an affirmation of the Foundation’s confidence in our innovative sensing platform. Not only will this cutting-edge technology make our roads safer, the underlying science has the potential to transform the way we diagnose disease in the future.”

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Inside the University of Maryland’s Virtual and Augmented Reality Laboratory earlier this month, 15 middle-school girls showed off the virtual reality games they created during this summer’s Computer Science Connect (CompSciConnect) program.

CompSciConnect is a two-week summer day camp that offers middle school girls the chance to explore activities in computing, including Web development, computer programming, robotics and cryptology. The students also take field trips to places where they can see the applications in computing, such as the Newseum and research institutions.

“Before doing this I never thought of doing computer science or thought it was that interesting, but now I realize that it really is the future of all of our careers,” said camper Erica Lopez-Haz, who will enter ninth grade this fall at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, Md. “Computers are becoming so crucial to our daily routines that nearly every occupation will rely on computers, and computer science will not really be optional at that point.”

Designed as a three-year program, each cohort returns the following summer to learn more advanced skills and meets once a month during the school year to maintain their skills. This year’s three cohorts total 82 students. CompSciConnect also provides an opportunity for female undergraduate students in computing-related majors to teach younger students about computing, while sharing their own excitement about and interest in the field.

Founded by Jandelyn Plane, a senior lecturer in computer science at UMD and director of the Maryland Center for Women in Computing, CompSciConnect is entering its fourth year. The “connect” in the program’s name has a two-fold purpose, according to Plane. The first goal is to show the students how computing connects to everything in the world. The second goal is to connect the girls to one another, with the goal of them forming long-term relationships.

“Computer science is one of the least diverse fields, with those populations being very underrepresented,” Plane said. “My goal is to get middle school girls interested in areas of computing. Even if they don’t choose to major in computer science in college, it’s important to me that they have an understanding of computing for whatever field they choose to study.”

In the Virtual and Augmented Reality Laboratory—also called the “Augmentarium”—middle school students Isha Santhosh and Kayla Newby demonstrated their virtual reality game, a driving simulator where players earn points by collecting cubes floating throughout the environment. One of the most interesting parts of the project was designing the environment, said Santhosh and Newby, which they created from scratch. Santhosh will be an eighth-grader this fall at Murray Hill Middle School in Laurel, Md., and Newby will enter ninth grade this fall at Northwood High School in Rockville, Md.

Newby, who joined the program last year after hearing about it at some workshops, said it has been incredibly fun to learn a bunch of new things, like developing a game using Unity 3D this year and creating a website during her first year in the program.

In addition to showcasing their games, the students learned about virtual and augmented reality technologies and applications UMD researchers are working on from Amitabh Varshney, a professor of computer science at UMD, director of UMD's Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, and director of the Virtual and Augmented Reality Laboratory. Varshney also described to the students ways that virtual and augmented reality could change the world in the future.

“We believe that virtual and augmented reality will play a large role in making STEM education more accessible—and more fun—for a wide group of students. Completely new pathways of discovery, both for science and education, will come from these innovative technologies,” said Rita Rodriguez, the NSF program director who manages the UMD Augmentarium award.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Researchers at the University of Maryland recently discovered that paper made of cellulose fibers is tougher and stronger the smaller the fibers get. For a long time, engineers have sought a material that is both strong (resistant to non-recoverable deformation) and tough (tolerant of damage).

“Strength and toughness are often exclusive to each other," said Teng Li, associate professor of mechanical engineering at UMD. "For example, a stronger material tends to be brittle, like cast iron or diamond."

The UMD team pursued the development of a strong and tough material by exploring the mechanical properties of cellulose, the most abundant renewable bio-resource on Earth. Researchers made papers with several sizes of cellulose fibers – all too small for the eye to see – ranging in size from about 30 micrometers to 10 nanometers. The paper made of 10-nanometer-thick fibers was 40 times tougher and 130 times stronger than regular notebook paper, which is made of cellulose fibers a thousand times larger.

"These findings could lead to a new class of high performance engineering materials that are both strong and tough, a Holy Grail in materials design," said Li.

High performance yet lightweight cellulose-based materials might one day replace conventional structural materials (i.e. metals) in applications where weight is important. This could lead, for example, to more energy efficient and "green" vehicles. In addition, team members say, transparent cellulose nanopaper may become feasible as a functional substrate in flexible electronics, resulting in paper electronics, printable solar cells and flexible displays that could radically change many aspects of daily life.

Cellulose fibers can easily form many hydrogen bonds. Once broken, the hydrogen bonds can reform on their own—giving the material a 'self-healing' quality. The UMD discovered that the smaller the cellulose fibers, the more hydrogen bonds per square area. This means paper made of very small fibers can both hold together better and re-form more quickly, which is the key for cellulose nanopaper to be both strong and tough.

"It is helpful to know why cellulose nanopaper is both strong and tough, especially when the underlying reason is also applicable to many other materials," said Liangbing Hu, assistant professor of materials science at UMD.

To confirm, the researchers tried a similar experiment using carbon nanotubes that were similar in size to the cellulose fibers. The carbon nanotubes had much weaker bonds holding them together, so under tension they did not hold together as well. Paper made of carbon nanotubes is weak, though individually nanotubes are arguably the strongest material ever made.

One possible future direction for the research is the improvement of the mechanical performance of carbon nanotube paper.

“Paper made of a network of carbon nanotubes is much weaker than expected,” said Li. “Indeed, it has been a grand challenge to translate the superb properties of carbon nanotubes at nanoscale to macroscale. Our research findings shed light on a viable approach to addressing this challenge and achieving carbon nanotube paper that is both strong and tough.”

This research is part of a National Science Foundation funded grant to explore the science underpinning anomalous scaling laws of strength and toughness in nanocellulose materials.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Tropical forests provide global climate regulation ecosystem services, and the clearing of these forests significantly accelerates the dangerous effects of climate change through the release of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. A new study co-authored by researchers at the University of Maryland for the first time provides a definitive tropical forest emissions study providing a clear picture of pan-tropical forest carbon losses.

Among the continents, Latin America is the largest contributor to carbon emissions from forest clearing, accounting for 43 percent of gross aboveground carbon (AGC) loss and 54 percent of natural forest AGC loss. Brazil accounts for the highest AGC loss for both categories at national scales. The researchers estimate gross tropical forest AGC loss and natural forest loss to account for 11 percent and 6 percent of global year 2012 CO2 emissions, respectively.

“Compared with the previous studies, we found significantly more tropical forest carbon loss in Africa and Southeast Asia. This is partially due to the fact that our sample-based approach allowed us to target small-scale forest disturbances in Central Africa and Mainland Southeast Asia, which are underestimated,” said UMD research associate Alexandra Yurievna Tyukavina, (Ph.D. ’15), one of the lead authors of the study.

“The original Hansen map included any tree cover loss, regardless of its cause and nature. We have disaggregated it into the loss of natural forests—which included primary, mature secondary forests and woodlands—and human-managed forests, including tree plantations, agroforestry systems and areas of slash-and-burn agriculture with rapid tree cover rotation,” Tyukavina explained. “We found that 58 percent of all tropical forest carbon loss came from natural forests, and 42 percent of loss came from human-managed forests. The proportion of carbon emissions from natural tropical forests will likely continue to decrease over the years, which will make accounting of human-managed forest dynamics increasingly important.”

Additional key findings:

This is the most definitive tropical forest emissions study to date

Natural forests worldwide are diminishing because of human activity

To conserve rainforests, other ecosystem services such as biodiversity need to be emphasized in addition to GHG emissions

Emissions due to smallholder farming, such as in Africa, are greater than previously thought

The researchers say this work is significant in that it complies with and promotes international standards and best practices outlined by the UN’s Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) program. REDD is an effort to create a financial value for the carbon stored in forests, offering incentives for developing countries to reduce emissions from forested lands and invest in low-carbon paths to sustainable development. "REDD+" goes beyond deforestation and forest degradation, and includes the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.

“The work reported here provides the first estimates of pantropical emissions using the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change good practice guidance, and it does that for a 12-year observational period. This information is key to tropical forest nations reporting their emissions in the context of REDD+,” said coauthor Scott Goetz, deputy director and senior scientist with the Woods Hole Research Center.

Governor Hogan to release state employees for four hours to help local organizations and citizens in need

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – This summer, University of Maryland faculty and staff will join together as Terps in Support of Maryland Unites as part of Governor Hogan’s “Maryland Unites: Day of Service” initiative. Governor Hogan will grant four hours of paid leave to state employees for service towards an accredited 501(c)(3) of their choice, in an effort to continue the spirit of kindness and goodwill following the destruction in Baltimore City this spring.

“We are thrilled to take part in Governor Hogan’s service initiative and to be partnering with so many highly regarded philanthropic organizations to better serve our communities,” said Gloria Aparicio Blackwell, UMD’s Director of Community Engagement. “We are looking forward to a strong turnout from faculty and staff and hope participants look to the Office of Community Engagement for future service and engagement opportunities.”

Although the impetus for this initiative derives from Governor Hogan’s office, UMD’s Office of Community Engagement places a premium on this type of community support, with staffers who approach each and every day with the betterment of the University’s surrounding community in mind. Terps in Support of Maryland Unites is the latest in a series of important strategic partnerships spearheaded by UMD’s Office of Community Engagement designed to strengthen relationships with individuals, the government, and local and regional philanthropic organizations.

Study finds decreases in consumption and production during the recession account for decrease in emissions between 1997 and 2013

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — After decades of steady increases, climate change-causing emissions of carbon dioxide in the U.S. decreased by 11 percent between 2007 and 2013. Many have assumed that the drop in emissions reflects a shift away from coal energy and towards lower-carbon natural gas. However, the majority of credit should be given to the global financial recession, according to researchers at the University of Maryland, University of California Irvine, and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.

“Carbon emissions are closely linked to economic growth in the sense that the recession helped reduce carbon emissions as it dampened household consumption, which is the main driver of the economy and emissions,” said Klaus Hubacek, professor of Geographical Sciences at UMD and one of the project’s investigators. “This points towards the fact that the more stuff we consume the more we pollute, and the importance of low carbon choices for consumers in achieving lower carbon lifestyles.”

The study results, which appear June 21 in the journal Nature Communications, are based on economic analysis of energy use and emissions in the U.S. between 1997 and 2013. Between 2007 and 2009, when U.S. emissions plummeted by 10 percent, there was a substantial decrease in the volume of goods and services being consumed in the U.S. and also a shift in the types of goods and services being produced. The new study finds that, together, these changes in consumption and production account for more than three-quarters of the decrease in emissions between 1997 and 2013, with changes in the mix of fuels used to generate energy accounting for just 18 percent of the drop in emissions.

“In our results, natural gas plays a big part in decreasing emissions. The real heroes are consuming less and using energy more efficiently,” said Steven Davis, assistant professor of Earth System Science at UC Irvine and a co-author of the study.

Previous reports have praised natural gas as driving emissions down because burning gas produces roughly half as much carbon dioxide per unit of energy than burning coal. However, the new work shows that changes in how much Americans consumed, what types of products they consumed, the balance of manufacturing and service industries, and the quantity of energy used per dollar of products produced have all been important contributors to the decrease in emissions. Analyzing these different factors, the researchers found that changes in the mix of fuels used have had a comparatively small effect on U.S. carbon dioxide emissions since 2007.

“Cheap gas has only made a small contribution to declining carbon emissions in the U.S.,” Hubacek notes. “At the same time, low gas prices make real alternatives such as renewables less economical, and exports of coal to countries with less efficient technologies have been increasing - thus potentially leading to even higher overall emissions. The only winner is to really invest in improving efficiency and the energy mix with a focus on renewables.”

The study concludes that without new policies that limit CO2 emissions, it may be difficult to keep emissions down as the U.S. economy continues to recover. And in fact, U.S. CO2 emissions rose in 2013 and 2014.

“With a growing economy, emissions are likely to increase again. Without appropriate policies in place such as the EPA Clean Power Plan, emissions will probably rise beyond the levels required to reach any reduction targets. Support for such plans can lock in the recessionary emissions reductions and ensure continued decarbonization of the U.S. energy system,” said Kuishuang Feng, assistant professor in UMD’s Department of Geographical Sciences and a researcher on the study.